Two Cowboys: Fresh, Pure, Liquid Gold from the Alberta Prairies Courtesy of Forever Bee in Okotoks, Alberta

Purest of Honey

In 2010 I embarked on the crazy journey to perfect classic Italian Honey Nougat. It is an ancient celebratory confection with only four ingredients - honey, egg white, cane sugar, and nuts. Nougat is a major industry in the old world of Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, and Morocco where it was typically served to royalty and as present at weddings, christenings, Christmas and birthdays.

It is also one of the most difficult confections to make. The soft, white, melt-in-your mount textured candy has broken many a chef's resolve. Only a few people in the world know the secrets of perfect white soft honey nougat and most of them only impart it to close family members on their death bed, who is tasked with perpetuating the legacy.

It took me three years and five tons of failures to finally unlock the secret of honey nougat perfection. None of which I am prepared to divulge in this post. What I did discover during my struggle is that most of the honey that we buy in stores are either not honey or of such low quality that it may as well be regular cane sugar syrup. For a start, it contains abnormal amounts of water, and it is pasteurized. As we know pasteurization kills all pathogens - the good ones with the bad. The bottom line discovery was that store bought honey cannot be used for making Honey Nougat.

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During my journey, I met Matt and Annanie. They own of Forever Bee. It is a small apiary they started in February of 2012 while on their own search for a better quality honey.

Forever Bee began as a tiny business that managed to sell a few jars of honey here and there at farmers' markets. They've been bootstrapping the business since and have managed to build up a strong fresh honey supply to many loyal customers in Southern Alberta. Their products include raw honey, flavored honey (they do a fantastic cinnamon honey), honeycomb, beeswax, candles and more.

Observations

We spend a lot of time around farmers' markets in Southern Alberta, and inevitably we run into the Forever Bee clan again and again with their fresh honeycomb and jars of pure, unpasteurized honey.

The honey is terrific for all the good reasons they mention in the video above.

What stands out for us about Matt and Annanie's business is not so much the honey they produce, which is fantastic. It is the success they have starting from nothing five years ago and building a simple, successful business with a very loyal customer base. The business is in its fifth year, and it is allowing them to have their entire family involved in growing it. It is only with passion and an outstanding product that they can continue to succeed.

Being at farmers' markets is hard work. It may appear idyllic or romantic to the casual bystander. There is a lot of time and dedication that goes into producing products the whole week and then still doing markets at the same time. For many, it is a seven day week affair. Often these small producer businesses cannot sustain themselves with only one market, so they are typically serving several markets per week. The season is also short, so every market day counts.

We find Forever Bee at these markets in the Foothills. What stands out is their dedication to a fantastic quality product. What sets them apart from other honey vendors is their willingness and commitment to educate about the virtues of fresh honey and the love and care they put into making their honey taste as good as it possibly can.

The honey from Forever Bee is the perfect honey for my classic soft Honey Nougat.

Hendrik van Wyk

Sweet Cowboy

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Lethbridge Market

Okotoks Market

Canmore Market

Honey Gold

Happy Beez

Traveling Cowboys: Getting Ourselves Checked at Man Day at Crossfield Farmers' Market, Alberta

A Food Experience

The Crossfield Farmers' Market does a few things right. For a start, they care about the men in the community. They also care about food - lots of home-made, fresh, delicious locally produced products. We found the whole pantry and more in one afternoon at this little market.

Cheryl Shea invited for Man Day on 18 August to see what makes this small market so unique and to get our prostates checked. Yup, they needed checking, we were told.

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The Crossfield Farmers Market runs June to September every Thursday from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm. It is located in Banta Park, Crossfield, Alberta. The 2017 Season marks their 42nd year!

As an Alberta Approved Farmers' Market, Crossfield pride themselves in offering the best of local handmade items, fresh baking, and locally grown produce. Since 2014, and with the help of volunteers like Cheryl, the Crossfield Agriculture Society put in an extensive effort to bring the market back to its roots.

They succeeded. The goal is to offer a family friendly and interactive environment with shopping and fun events for all market goers. The Market features local artists, farmers, and bakers. On this occasion, the market also featured BBQ, axe throwing, and hosted the MAN VAN, which is Canada’s first and only free mobile men’s health clinic offering PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) blood testing.

Observations

Time flies when you are having fun. Indeed, we had fun at Crossfields.

What stood out for us was the variety of food vendors for the small size of the market. There was everything from gourmet doughnuts, jams, juices, seafood, sauces, mustards, ice cream, and more.

Alberta Health Services, bylaws and regulations make it hard for small producers to bring food products to market. To have a farmers' market like Crossfield, that embraces food vendors, is a win for food producers in our province. It makes it a little easier for entrepreneurs to take the initiative and make something delicious and unique when they know they have a place where they can find customers for their wares.

We also had ourselves checked by the MAN VAN. Men, in general, are skittish when it comes to discussing their prostrates. Since I turned forty a few years ago, my Doctor developed a fixation for my nether regions. The MAN VAN offers a refreshingly different approach to having our prostates checked, and yes, it is all legal. They do it with a simple PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) blood test.

We are glad to report that we are still as healthy as ever and in outstandingly good condition. The checkup showed us a little over weight. We attribute it to our healthy appetite and healthy love for our beer. Two healthies makes a very healthy in our books!

Crossfield Farmers' Market is a must in Alberta. We rate it amongst our favorites.

Hendrik van Wyk

Healthy Cowboy

We earn our livelihood from producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. We use Patreon to help us earn from our work. Please become a patron at http://www.travelingcowboys.com if you want to see more of this and other stories.

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Glass River

Gourmet!

Unique

Alberta Produce!

Future Millionaires 

Lost Texan

Traveling Cowboys: Early Morning Mustard at Exhibition Park Lethbridge Farmers' Market in Lethbridge, Alberta

Mustard World

If you go early, you get the freshest produce. If you go later, you can spend more time with friends at the market.

Everybody in Southern Alberta knows that Lethbridge's Farmers' Market is one of the best in the area. It is packed with fresh produce that sells out early. You can also find products like honey from Forever Bee, mead wine from Spirit Hills Meadery, nuts and even locally made mustard from Luco Farms. We also managed to get an excellent Flat White Coffee from Red Engine Coffee Roasters.

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The market return every May to the Exhibition Park's indoors West Pavilion. The Saturday market opens at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 1:00 p.m. The last market of the season is on the last Saturday in October. There is no admission or parking fee. Over 3000 people attend the Saturday markets, so it is a busy place. Get there early.

Between fifty and a hundred exhibitors are at the market each market day. The Farmers’ Market is a member of the Alberta Farmers’ Market Association (AFMA). It aims to offer at least 80% of products to be locally made, baked or grown. This means you can find crafts, fresh fruit, vegetables, home-made baking, artwork, hand-made clothing, and much more made by people in the area.

Observations

The Lethbridge market has the right vendor mix and offers something for everyone. There is enough to taste, see and sample from local vendors so that it keeps you busy for the entire Saturday morning.

As you would expect, the produce from this part of the world, with its well-structured irrigation infrastructure, is outstanding. If you are not into farm-fresh food, there is even someone (Synergy Urban Farms) that makes a business out of cultivating vegetables in people's gardens in the city of Lethbridge. Call it "garden-fresh" produce. You can buy this also at the market. 

What we learned new, courtesy of Luco Farms, was that the area is also a primary producer of Mustard. Yet, as usual, we don't process it in Alberta as we should. Like some of our other highly prized agricultural assets, namely barley, we export most of it to the rest of the world without adding any value. Luco Farms is changing that with the traditional mustards they produce, with the hope to export it soon.

We love mustard on our BBQ pork and making the discovery that we can use our very own Alberta mustard is a revelation. The only challenge now is that we have to work in frequent visits to the Lethbridge Farmers' Market to stock up on this beautiful mustard. We'll see you there.

Hendrik van Wyk

Hot and Spicy Mustard Cowboy

We earn our livelihood from producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. We use Patreon to help us earn from our work. Please become a patron at http://www.travelingcowboys.com if you want to see more of this and other stories.

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Great Sausages

Alberta Mustard!

Fresh Honey

Indeed!

Berries!

o-CNN: Market Day in Cochrane, Alberta

A Market Community is a Healthy Community

The Two Cowboys were fortunate to visit with Valerie McCracken, the volunteer organizer of the Cochrane Farmers' Market. Over the last two weekends we had a taste of what Cochrane's micro businesses have to offer and we loved it!

The Cochrane Market is an Alberta Approved Farmers’ Market. It comes with rules and regulations that help distinguish the market from a typical "Flea Market" or "Public Market". For example: eighty per cent of the vendors are Albertans who meet the "make it, bake it, grow it" criteria. This means you are buying from the community's producers and product makers, directly. The remaining twenty per cent of the vendors are selling products that complement the market mix, within the discretion of the organizers. 

Another key differentiator is the organization of the market. An "approved market" is sponsored by a not-for-profit community group, local Chamber of Commerce, municipality or agricultural society, or have formed their own not-for profit society under the Societies Act. Hence, the market is a collaborative effort for the benefit of all the participants. It even has a vendor meeting to include the participants in the decision making. The "approved" status plays a distinguishing role to define the character of the types of businesses that participate in the market and how the activity is organized. 

The Cochrane Environmental Action Committee sponsors and operates the Cochrane Farmers’ Market at the Cochrane Ranche Historic Site. The market runs from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each Saturday, rain or shine, from the beginning of June until the end of September. The market just celebrated its 18th birthday. They continue to grow, and each year is better than the last, with a downtown evening market added this year! 

Somehow, as Valerie mentioned in a her interview, Cochrane may have managed to get something right after eighteen years of trying to have a vibrant and healthy market. This year is the first year where the rest of the Cochrane retail and business community started to recognize, that to survive the onslaught of the national and multinational big box store invasion in small town Alberta, Cochrane has to turn to its own. The Farmers' Market was invited into the downtown core to help attract customers with products that make Cochrane unique as a destination, and inspiring as a community.

I make no mystery about the fact that I think markets are the critical, and often missing foundation of a community's character. A community with a healthy market and locally originating commerce is one that thrives in other areas too. It shows the societal health of a place when people come together to interact and trade the value they create. 

A market shrinks complicated value chains by offering direct access between producer and consumer. Markets overcome commerce imbalances in a community, which are often caused by an over representation of real estate reliant retailers stocked with out-of-town goods. Retailers offer a simple and safe tax base for local governments, and is therefore favoured over the complexities of the organizational overhead, and transient nature of market vendors. 

Yet, many successful producers and businesses started at markets. A market offers a safe place with low entry cost and low tax overhead, where government regulations and compliance costs are delayed a little longer, before it exercises its potential to kill the entrepreneurial spark of budding entrepreneurs.

Not only is the community's market a meeting place for town folk, it is the first place where budding entrepreneurs get to show their ideas, offer their products, and solicit feedback from potential customers. It is a place where you usually get something unique, delicious and practical while meeting friends and exchanging the week's news. 

With a healthy market, people have a chance to belong, a chance to contribute, and a chance to count on the support of those around them. Show me a community's market, and I will show you the health of its people.

Why then do we in Canada, mothball our markets during the long winter months? Granted, winter impacts agricultural pursuits, but that is not all you get at a vibrant market. These very important months is exactly the time when there is more opportunity for adding value to the season's harvest and inventing and making new products. 

I make the case that we need more markets (approved or not), and that these markets should be given the opportunity to operate year round in Canada. It is a community's prerogative to have its market, and you have the support of the Two Cowboys to help you make the case. We are so enthusiastic about markets that we are going to devote more time to this topic during the second half of this year when we travel to New Zealand to see how it is done in a country that thrives, thanks to its local micro producers, and its markets.

Hendrik van Wyk

Local Market Advocate

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Who we are: We are a social enterprise. We are funded through donations and sponsorship. 
All our earnings are applied back to covering our costs of marketing and promoting Producers and inspiring local communities. Please support us to bring you more (www.forwardthefavour.com)

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My Place

Market Fanatic

Rock Face 

Dozens and Dozens

Ouma's Preserves

Hand Made

o-CNN: Gourmet at the Market - Valbella Gourmet Foods, Alberta

Yes Chef!

Farmers' and Outdoor Markets play a significant role in bringing communities together. Its role is even more prevalent when large Producers lend their support to a local market to interact with customers. It brings people together. 

Valbella’s commitment to excellence paired with its European tradition, and simple love for fine food has done it again. They've snagged one of the Bow Valley's finest Swiss chefs to deliver gourmet creations with a farmers' market twist. Valbella stands out as one of Western Canada’s most recognized meat processors. 

The founder, Walter’s constant product innovation and keen market sense keeps customers and top chefs awaiting new and tantalizing products, whether they be for a gourmet menu, or simply for a backyard BBQ party. Where else can you zip in for a Beef Wellington, Turducken or double smoked bacon? Soon these will be available at the market too.

We caught up with the next generation, Chantal his daughter, at their new Canmore Mountain Market Food Trailer. How does Pork-belly Kimchi, or Bison Rhubarb Burger sound for your Thursday lunch hour. Come and get these and similar creation at your simple market in downtown Canmore over your Thursday lunch hour. Everyone else is there anyway...

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Hendrik van Wyk

Building a Valbelly

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One More Mommy

Minime

Valbella Here

Yum Yum

Candied Bacon

That Burger

o-CNN: Booze Out of the Woods - Fallentimber, Alberta

Fallentimber At the Market

Farmers and craft markets play an important role in the evolution and growth of micro businesses. Communities that recognize this value and create opportunities for these businesses to take their goods to market are flourishing. Fallentimber is one such business we profiled recently.  

We caught up with Nathan Ryan and his cousin at the Canmore Mountain Market and Cochrane Farmers market recently to find out how the market has worked for them.

Enjoy this one, and don't forget to join our mailing list for special offers and experiences from Fallentimber and our other Producers. You can join here.

Hendrik van Wyk

Market Maker

Get rewarded for supporting our local Producers. Receive special offers and invitations from the Two Cowboys.

Who we are: We are a social enterprise. We are funded through donations and sponsorship. 
All our earnings are applied back to covering our costs of marketing and promoting Producers and inspiring local communities. Please support us to bring you more (www.forwardthefavour.com)

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Local Sign Maker

Soldiers

Instrument of Necessity 

o-CNN: Cowboy News Network - Farmers Market, Calgary

Calgary Farmers Market - This is a Food Town

Located just off of Blackfoot Trail and Heritage Drive, the Calgary Farmers’ Market was built to be a family friendly, dynamic place for community engagement. Big words for a lot of good food and fun!

Over eighty vendors supply fresh local produce, art, meat, poultry, international food, organic goods, jewelry and more. Yes, they are local. We've checked.

Vancouver has its Granville Island, and Cowtown has its Farmers' Market. Granted, the name is not as fancy, neither is the setting, but at this market you get a solid dose of Alberta production and produce. It appears simple and underwhelming at first until you start talking to some of the vendors. You quickly realize that this market is local market. It is Alberta Producers and their products are on sale.

The market has an amazing array of food vendors. It also caters for the budding entrepreneur and aspiring chef through events such as "Cooking with Your Kids", "Meet the Markers", and "Vino Value Tasting". Sign me up!

Calgary, you have a gem. It is called the Calgary Farmers Market. This town is not only about oil. It is a food town. It is our town.

You should be at the market!

Hendrik van Wyk
Cowboy News Network and Market Enthusiast

Get rewarded for supporting our local Producers. Receive special offers and invitations from the Two Cowboys.

Who we are: We are a social enterprise. We are funded through donations and sponsorship. 
All our earnings are applied back to covering our costs of marketing and promoting Producers and inspiring local communities. Please support us to bring you more (www.forwardthefavour.com)

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Our Market

Hand Crafted Chocolate

The Wall

Them Too